Russian oil exec Khodorkovsky guilty of new charges

RUSSIA

Andrew E. Kramer and Clifford J. Levy, New York Times

Published
4:00 am PST, Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, center, and his co-defendant Platon Lebedev, right, are escorted to a court room in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Dec. 27, 2010. The judge on Monday declared former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky guilty of theft and money laundering charges in his second trial, Russian news agencies reported, a verdict that would likely keep Russia's once richest man behind bars for several more years. less

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, center, and his co-defendant Platon Lebedev, right, are escorted to a court room in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Dec. 27, 2010. The judge on Monday declared former oil tycoon Mikhail ... more

Photo: Sergey Ponomarev, AP

Photo: Sergey Ponomarev, AP

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Mikhail Khodorkovsky, center, and his co-defendant Platon Lebedev, right, are escorted to a court room in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Dec. 27, 2010. The judge on Monday declared former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky guilty of theft and money laundering charges in his second trial, Russian news agencies reported, a verdict that would likely keep Russia's once richest man behind bars for several more years. less

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, center, and his co-defendant Platon Lebedev, right, are escorted to a court room in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Dec. 27, 2010. The judge on Monday declared former oil tycoon Mikhail ... more

Photo: Sergey Ponomarev, AP

Russian oil exec Khodorkovsky guilty of new charges

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Seven years ago, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russia's richest man, was jailed after challenging the authority of Vladimir Putin, who wanted the country's post-Soviet tycoons to stop meddling in politics. On Monday, Khodorkovsky, still behind bars, was convicted on new charges of embezzlement in a case that has been widely viewed as an indicator of whether Russia will take even modest steps toward establishing a real rule of law.

The judge did not immediately hand down a sentence for Khodorkovsky, 47, who reacted impassively as he listened to the verdict in a Moscow courtroom.

While a guilty verdict had been expected, the length of the sentence will be scrutinized as offering clues to the Kremlin's tolerance for political dissent and legal norms. Khodorkovsky is the country's best-known prisoner, and his treatment has been cited by the Kremlin's opponents as evidence that justice here is readily manipulated by those in power.

Supporters of Khodorkovsky contend officials pressed new charges against him to make sure that he would stay in prison at least through presidential elections in 2012. Putin - the former president, current prime minister and still the country's paramount leader - has said he is weighing another run for president. Khodorkovsky's sentence from his earlier conviction ends in 2011.

Foreign governments have followed the case closely, and many in the West questioned the verdict. "This and similar cases have a negative impact on Russia's reputation for fulfilling its international human rights obligations and improving its investment climate," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a statement.

Khodorkovsky became a billionaire in the rough-and-tumble 1990s after the collapse of communism, snapping up state-owned oil fields at a fraction of their worth and then creating one of the world's largest oil companies, Yukos. He financed political parties and ignored increasingly pointed warnings from Putin's associates.

He was convicted of tax fraud in 2005, and his companies were essentially confiscated by the government. He ended up in a Siberian penal colony.

In the current case, he was accused of stealing $27 billion in oil from subsidiaries of his own conglomerate. Khodorkovsky's lawyers called the new charges absurd and politically motivated.